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Raphaela Papadakis seems to like ‘playing with fire’. After her acclaimed performance as the put-upon maid, Anna, in Independent Opera’s production of Šimon Voseček’s Beidermann and the Arsonists at Sadler’s Wells last year, she is currently rehearsing for the premiere this week of And London Burned, a new opera by Matt Rogers which has been commissioned by Temple Music Foundation to commemorate the 350th anniversary of The Great Fire of London.

News

31 Oct 2005

A Singing Hiker Who Scales the Heights of Mozart Opera

SALZBURG, Austria - Standing in the Barmstein mountains, not far from Salzburg, I am listening to a fourth-generation Salzburger sing Mozart in the woods. It is not exactly on a scale with next year's plans to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the birth of Mozart, this city's most famous native son. Those events will dominate the musical life of Salzburg and Vienna. Mozart's complete operas are to be performed at next summer's Salzburg Festival; Robert Wilson is designing what is bound to be a strange installation in the building where Mozart was born; multiday Mozart biking tours are planned for those who want to follow in his coach tracks; musicians will make pilgrimages to perform and audiences to listen.